{"id":2931,"date":"2010-11-29T17:03:50","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T22:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=2931"},"modified":"2010-11-29T17:03:50","modified_gmt":"2010-11-29T22:03:50","slug":"2005-charge-against-teen-upgraded-to-murder-after-victim-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=2931","title":{"rendered":"2005 Charge Against Teen Upgraded To Murder After Victim Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong>At the age of 17, <strong>Jonathan Melvis<\/strong> was sentenced to 30 years for stabbing of a man in 2005. However, last week, the charge was upgraded to murder after the man died.<\/p>\n<p>According to police, <strong>Vincent Thomas Baker<\/strong> died earlier this year. He had been on a ventilator after he was stabbed in the chest on March 31, 2005.<\/p>\n<p>After the stabbing, <strong>Baker, <\/strong>who was 28,<strong> <\/strong>was transported to a local hospital, where he was treated for a wound in the chest. He was later transferred to South Tampa Health and Rehab Center and placed on a ventilator.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office, <strong>Baker <\/strong>collapsed and suffered brain injuries as a result of a loss of blood.<\/p>\n<p>An autopsy report from the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office, listed <strong>Baker\u2019s <\/strong>cause of death as \u201cpneumonia from anoxic encephalopathy due to the chest stab wound, which penetrated his heart,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n<p>[private]The investigation into the stabbing reportedly led the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office detectives to <strong>Melvis, <\/strong>who was 15 at the time of the stabbing. <strong>Melvis <\/strong>was arrested on May 19, 2005, and charged him with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.<\/p>\n<p>Police said that on March 31, 2005, around 5 p.m., <strong>Baker <\/strong>was walking home from work on Drycreek   Drive, when he met <strong>Melvis. <\/strong>The two exchanged words and <strong>Baker<\/strong> continued walking.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Melvis, <\/strong>who is now 21,<strong> <\/strong>is alleged to have borrowed a bicycle and rode towards <strong>Baker,<\/strong> got off the bicycle, and stabbed <strong>Baker <\/strong>in the chest.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Melvis <\/strong>was convicted of the stabbing and sentenced to 30 years in prison on November 14, 2006.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe cause and the manner of <strong>Baker\u2019s <\/strong>death was ruled as a homicide. Upon review by the Sheriff\u2019s Office and the State Attorney\u2019s Office, a 2<sup>nd<\/sup> degree murder charge was filed . He will be brought back to Tampa to be arraigned on the new charge,\u201d a spokesman for the Sheriff\u2019s Office said.[\/private]<\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor At the age of 17, Jonathan Melvis was sentenced to 30 years for stabbing of a man in 2005. However, last week, the charge was upgraded to murder after the man died. According to police, Vincent Thomas Baker died earlier this year. He had been on a ventilator [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}